Read on Twitter
Good fucking morning Twitter, I am in a mood so I'm going to put you on to something that #MarketingTwitter has BEEN saying and y'all stay not hearing.
Do you want to grow your followers on this bird app in 2021? Listen up, imma tell you in this thread.
Do you want to grow your followers on this bird app in 2021? Listen up, imma tell you in this thread.
But first I'm going to tell you that follower count is a vanity metric that DOES NOT show the impact your brand, product, or organization has on actual human lives. If you have 10k followers and 2 of them engage with your content this means:
1: You have 2 followers.
2: You don't know your demographic, and thus are not appealing to the right audience.
3: Your content sucks.
4: YOU'RE not engaging with your community.
2: You don't know your demographic, and thus are not appealing to the right audience.
3: Your content sucks.
4: YOU'RE not engaging with your community.
IF you are working with an organization who is using follower count as a metric of your brand's worth, that practice is outdated. Show them your impact in a real, relevant, genuine way.
Your follower count means dick without engagement. Understood? Okay.
Your follower count means dick without engagement. Understood? Okay.
COMMUNITY BUILDING starts with good, ACCESSIBLE, authentic content. Images and video are frequent hits - use alt text functionality, and video captions. You're creating content for humans, ALL of them, not just the able bodied and neurotypical.
ENGAGE. Especially on Twitter - have conversations. Showcase expertise in your niche. Don't be a culture vulture. Share content from others. Follow/back your community, acknowledge a tag/mention/RT, don't use canned responses, limit CTA & hashtags. A friendly note on the latter:
HASHTAGS ARE NOT AN EFFECTIVE MARKETING STRATEGY. You're wasting VALUABLE space. Use hashtags for events, campaigns, locale specificity, and my favorite, #sarcasm. Two is too many, you can participate in trends without them. Hashtags will not lead you to hallowed ground.
BE HERE. You know the meme "Tired of looking at bad screen, time for good screen." but they're both fucking computers? That's a social media manager with social media. After social media work is done, we swap to personal accounts to... look at social media.
I'm not suggesting live a life on social, but posting and running without engaging ain't it. Whatever you are offering to the world, you should be talking about regularly. You should be finding and sharing content you find helpful, or insightful, and amplifying voices not heard.
LISTEN. Social listening is integral to success and so is LISTENING TO THE PERSON YOU UNDERPAY TO MANAGE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS. 
I don't know an SMM who has the privilege of not learning anything new because they know everything, but we have dedicated years to this.
I don't know an SMM who has the privilege of not learning anything new because they know everything, but we have dedicated years to this.
We're not intentionally going to lead you to an abyss, we want to see success. Step back, let us be creative, bring your ideas but listen to us when we push back. Or, simply don't add a social media manager to your team and waste their god. damn. time.
I'm sure I missed something, but this should give you a good head start. You don't want followers - you want a community, you have to build the community, you have to value the community. Kind of like a community. Weird.
Oh, here's the meme for context. I was too lazy to find it while in the throes of angry Tweeting.
